Jovellanos expected the greatest benefit from a Cortes; but he apprehended great evil if it were hastily convoked, and without due preparation. That party who have since assumed the appellation of _Liberales_ censured him for proposing to postpone it so long. They were then a very small, but active, minority, consisting chiefly of physicians, lawyers, and unbelieving priests, whose little knowledge, exclusively derived from prohibited French books, was worse than ignorance. These persons were for hurrying on to a jacobinical revolution, and were impatient for a Cortes as the first great means of embodying that democracy which they expected to govern. But there were also many of the best of the Spaniards who looked to the Cortes as the surest means of delivering their country, and restoring it to its former dignity and power; and the same views were very generally entertained in England, and by the British Government itself. In fact, the assembling of a Cortes had been proposed by our first authorized agent, Mr. Stuart, to the Juntas of Galicia and Asturias. Some of the difficulties which would attend it were then perceived; the Asturians proposed that it should assemble at Oviedo, the Galicians at Villa Franca in the Bierzo, each Junta wishing that it should be convoked near their own place of abode; and for the purpose of retaining their power, they wished to enlarge the deputation, so that all their own members might be included. Though it was thus seen that the measure was not so easily accomplished as had been supposed, still the opinion prevailed in England, that if a free legislative assembly were established in Spain, the same blessings would ensue as the British people enjoy under the well-tempered constitution which has grown with their growth, and adapted itself to their circumstances. There are errors from which it is painful to be undeceived. Those persons were wiser in their generation, who, having the recent example of France before their eyes, believed that legislative assemblies, in countries unaccustomed to such modes of legislation, are more to be dreaded than desired; that the reformation which is thus begun tends to certain anarchy; and that where great and extensive improvements in the existing system are necessary, the only means whereby they can be effected, without inducing worse evils than those which are removed, is by an upright and far-sighted minister, under a strong government. Upon ♦FLORIDA-BLANCO AVERSE TO IT.♦ this point Florida-Blanca judged more truly than Jovellanos. Such, however, was the respect with which the opinions of that admirable man were at this time heard, that his proposal would have been carried, if the Junta had come ♦JOVELLANOS MEMORIA, P. II. § 35.♦ to an immediate decision upon it; and it was only by deferring the final discussion till Nov. 7, being that day month, that the minority averted a measure which shocked their prejudices as much as it alarmed their fears. ♦State of Catalonia.♦